1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to prevention of document fraud, more particularly, the invention relates to a document alteration indicating system and method.
2. Related Art
With the advent of advanced document creating, copying and revision technology, the problems relating to fraudulent documents have dramatically increased. To address fraudulent creation and copying, technology has been created that evaluates documents, such as checks, for counterfeiting based on security techniques built into the documents. For example, a pantograph configured in a background of a check can prevent fraudulent copying. Tampering or revising of an established document, however, is not adequately addressed by current counterfeiting prevention processes. One example of tampering is where a defrauder changes the payee name on a check or the amount payable on a check. Evaluation of this type fraud is usually conducted manually. Where a defrauder has made an obvious alteration of a document, e.g., crossing out and replacing a payment amount in a check, tampering is easily determined. However, the advancement in document alteration technology oftentimes makes revisions of documents nearly impossible to catch. This is especially the case where the alteration is of the type that it is not quickly discernable to the naked eye; for example, where typographical error correction liquid is used to remove information from a document.
In institutional entities, such as banks, document processing is oftentimes automated so multitudes of documents can be quickly evaluated. The above-mentioned method of manually evaluating documents for tampering, therefore, is detrimental to efficient document processing.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a system and method for accurately and automatically detecting alterations in documents.
In a first aspect of the invention is provided a method of detecting alteration of a marking in a half-tone field of a document, the half-tone field having a predetermined pattern, the method comprising the steps of: ascertaining a first dot count of dots isolated from the marking in the half-tone field of the document; forming an image of the marking; superimposing the image on a blank half-tone field having the same predetermined pattern as the half-tone field of the document; ascertaining a second dot count of dots isolated from the image superimposed on the blank half-tone field; and determining whether the marking has been altered by comparing the first dot count to the second dot count.
In a second aspect of the invention is provided a system for indicating alteration of a marking of a document half-tone field, the document half-tone field having a predetermined pattern, the system comprising: a dot counter for counting isolated dots of a half-tone field; an imager for forming an image of the marking of the document half-tone field; a superimposer for superimposing the image on a blank half-tone field having the same predetermined pattern as the document half-tone field; a comparator for comparing a first dot count of the document half-tone field to a second dot count of the blank half-tone field with the image superimposed thereon, wherein an alteration is indicated when the first dot count is different than the second dot count. This aspect may also include a document processing system and workstation comprising the above system for indicating alteration of a marking of a document half-tone field.
In a third aspect of the invention is provided a computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for indicating an alteration of a marking on a document half-tone field, the document half-tone field having a predetermined pattern, the computer program product comprising: program code configured to count isolated dots of a half-tone field; program code configured to form an image of the marking of the document half-tone field; program code configured to superimpose the image on a blank half-tone field having the same predetermined pattern as the document half-tone field; and program code configured to compare a first dot count of the document half-tone field to a second dot count of the blank half-tone field with the image superimposed thereon, wherein an alteration is indicated when the first dot count is different than the second dot count.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of preferred embodiments of the invention.